I Remembered Why I Stopped Watching TV

Wake up, US public!

Apparently, behind my back, in between gobbling up McDonald's and Sprint PCS commercials, Americans have found themselves caught up in a brilliant new television series: Revelations.

I'm all for suspense, mythology, and I loved the Exorcist, and although the Omen series is a bit campy, it has a place in my heart. I mean, those were good stories.

But for Christ's sake (ha ha), people really believe this horseshit.

I don't know what's worse: this television show or Texas.

No offense to those of the two of you who are religious (and that's neither of you, but I'm covering all my bases here) but what is wrong with people?

Isn't there enough wonder and mystery in the universe without ... this pile of donkey manure? Just look up at the stars at night (you can't if you live where I live, but I like to imagine what they look like), and think about Carl Sagan saying "billions and billions" and keep looking, and you'll have enough to wonder about for the rest of your life. Isn't that enough? What's this obsession with the Anti-Christ, the return of Christ, and appearances of the virgin Mary on el station tracks or an underpass or something. (Yes, this really happened here in Chicago right after the new pontiff was chosen; people flocked for miles around to look at some cracks in some cement that maybe, if you were on a combination of LSD, heroin, cocaine, and a quadruple espresso, you might think was something resembling a virgin, or maybe a blooming flower, or maybe a wolf.)

The problem isn't really this show or that utterly stupid series of books by the more utterly stupid authors that's about this same topic; it's that people really believe this. And it makes people judgmental, hateful, spiteful, and narrow-minded. Not only that, they want to legislate their beliefs. They don't want you to have an abortion, they don't want me to put drugs (or Jose) in my body, and they don't want a lot of oter things to happen. If we go that far, we might as well start throwing stones as menstruating women. I mean, if we're going to head toward Margaret Atwood's Gilead, we might as well go whole hog.

Now, maybe I'm pompous and judgmental of religious people, but I don't begrudge anyone's beliefs, no matter how stupid I think they are, as long as they don't want to bother me or interfere with my life.

The problem is: they do want to interfere.

I don't know about you, but I'm not having any. So there.

On the other hand, Desperate Housewives is pretty funny.

I had to take a moment out of my very busy life to get this off my back.